The discussion featured an expert panel, which consisted of a commodity manager from Shure Electronics, a purchasing manager from Doran Scales and a buyer from SPX Genfare.

The experts offered insights about how to work more effectively with supply chain professionals and provided answers to key questions, including: When and how do you decide that you need support from a field sales representative; how can a field sales representative better engage with you; and how has your process for component/supplier selection changed over the last five years?

Tom Trzeciak of ALT Technical Sales and president of the Chicagoland-Wisconsin Chapter moderated the discussion. More than 25 chapter members attended the event.

“It is always important to do “reality checks” and we had that opportunity at the November chapter event with the three supply chain professionals and their candid comments on how they engage with representatives,” Trzeciak said. “For example, there is always a lot of discussion when reps gather of whether or not social media has an increasing influence in how we contact and interface with them. The answer came back pretty firm: ‘not so much.’”

About ERA
The 82-year-old Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) is the international trade organization for professional field sales companies in the global electronics industries, manufacturers who go to market through representative firms and global distributors. It is the mission of ERA to support the professional field sales function through programs and activities that educate, inform and advocate for manufacturers’ representatives, the principals they represent and the distributors who are reps’ partners in local territories. ERA member representative firms (often called “reps”) provide field sales services on an exclusive basis to manufacturers of related (but non-competing) products in a defined territory. For more information about ERA, visit era.org.

About Chicagoland-Wisconsin ERA
Chicagoland – Wisconsin ERA is a local resource for continuing education programs, networking opportunities, peer discussion groups and an array of services designed to help improve professionalism and profitability. For more information, visit www.chiwisera.com.